Monday, August 07, 2006

Frank Zappa clips

My attention was drawn today to these video clips on the late, lamented, Frank Zappa. The first is of a very youthful Frank 'playing bicycle' on the Steve Allen Show. Its a classic.

The best rock concerts I ever went to were of Frank Zappa performing at the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney in mid 1973. I've been a devoted fan since.
Thanks David Prentice.

10 comments:

FXH said...

not only a fascist but a hippy

hc said...

Zappa was no hippy. He was a freak who knew how to get high without using dope.

When I left the Hordern Pavilion in 1973 there were groups of hippies having acid trips gone wrong at the rear of the Pavilion. They were lying on the floor totally destroyed by the drugs and Zappa's music.

This was dramatic, strange music that was unusual. I liked it but, regrettably have never heard anything like it in the recorded music of Frank Zappa.

Anonymous said...

I was there except it was later.

Garry McDonald played Mouth-harp and Jean Luc Ponty on electric violin.

hc said...

Homer, I recall Jean-Luc Ponty who was amazing but cannot remember Gunston.

Anonymous said...

Jean luc ponty later came back with john McLaughlin.

I think he playd one concert. It was LONG but brilliant. He interviewed Zappa on Norman Gunston and played as such.

We must be of the same vintage only you are a hellva lot smarter then I

hc said...

I remember John McLachlin and his bald-headed guru Sri Chinmoy. I still have a good version of the John Coltrane piece 'A Love Supreme' by McLachlin. He was very good.

Yes we are probably the same vintage Homer.

The other concerts I remember from this era were the Rolling Stones at, I think, the Showground and a really fine concert by Ravi Shankar at Sydney Town Hall.

FXH said...

harry - it was a small joke. Zappa couldn't stand hippies and drugs although that was where his market was strangely. (no I'm not looking at you but at homer)
I saw him at Festival Hall here in Melbourne.

24/ 25 -Jun 1973, (also 8 July?) Horden Pavillion, Sydney, Australia -The Mothers Of Invention = FZ, Jean Luc Ponty, Tom Fowler, Ralph Humphrey, Ruth Underwood, Ian Underwood, George Duke, Bruce Fowler, Sal Marquez, Kin Vassey.

I can post the set lists but I'm guessing Homer has them commmitted to memory.

FXH said...

harry and Homer - you probably know about Allan Zavod - http://www.allanzavod.com/ an Australian whose father, Edward Zavod, was a violinist. Joined Zappa in 1984. Allan was classically trained on piano, and at twelve he was taken to the USA as his father’s accompanist. He studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston, and his major influences on piano were Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans.

New York early 1970s as a big band pianist, working with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Woody Herman, Mike Gibbs and Gary Burton, Maynard Ferguson, and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra.

Zavod was a member of the jazz-rock group New York Mary, which was formed by musicians who had all worked with Maynard Ferguson. He then worked with Billy Cobham, which led to his joining Jean-Luc Ponty in 1976. Other musical associations were with George Benson and saxophonist Sonny Fortune.

hc said...

fxh, I don't know about Allan Zavod but will give him a go. Always interested in new approaches.

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